JP2009183735A - Advanced game and puzzle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an advanced game and puzzle with many special effects, which are available from a yet-to-be-discovered phenomenon. <P>SOLUTION: The game or puzzle includes multiple square polyomino pieces, each of which has the front and back faces, and each of the faces has a mark. The polyomino is formed of a lot of adjacent cubes. Each puzzle piece is composed of the same size of height as the size of the side of each square that forms the polyomino so that the polyomino has sides formed of adjacent squares. The marks on the back face and the front and the square of the side face are selected to present a sign at least on part of the square. The puzzle pieces can be assembled into one or more solutions that include assembled cubes having a lot of squares along each of the edges corresponding to the number of the squares of the front and the back face; At least one of the solutions includes at least one or more messages on at least one of the faces of the assembled cube. One or more of the messages comprise at least some of the signs on the squares. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to improved games and puzzles, and in particular can be considered more advanced than the games and / or puzzles described in our US Pat. No. 5,868,388 (the “388 patent”). Regarding games or puzzles. The specification of said patent is incorporated herein by reference.

  Many types of checkerboard puzzles have been demonstrated in the past, and the inventors found that the main literature that presented the details of the checkerboard puzzle was “Gold Slocam and Jack Haubrich” published in August 1993. Think of it as “Compendium of Checker Board Puzzles”. Many puzzles can be constructed using the theory of combinatorial geometry that underlies the puzzle presented in this introduction. However, until the appearance of the 388 patent, no relationship was established between the front and back surfaces of such puzzles. The patent has a plurality of polyomino pieces, each piece has one or more squares on both sides, each piece square has a mark, and the piece uses only its surface, A puzzle that can be assembled into a first set of one or more solutions that form a square checkerboard pattern with a square mark of a piece, wherein the piece further comprises two checkerboard patterns of two alternating marks Can be assembled into one or more solutions of a second set of components, so that the marks on both sides of the piece contain three or more marks, and the first set of solutions is different from the second set of solutions Taught a puzzle composed of

  The 388 patent also makes this principle a three-dimensional puzzle, in particular having square faces, but each face has a checkerboard pattern and the two opposite faces have the same characteristics as the double-sided puzzle of the invention. How to fit a structured cube, with the pieces marked so that the face of the cube when assembled can have a checkerboard pattern consisting of marks on the front and back The explanation of whether or not can be done was also presented.

  However, the system proposed in the '388 patent is used to generate a particular checkerboard pattern using only two alternating colors on each side, eg 12 pentominoes and 1 tetromino in particular. It is impossible to get diagonal stripes as applied to the checkerboard. When providing letters, numbers, or other symbols with linguistic characteristics instead of colored marks, there is no teaching of a paradigm for generating specific non-exclusive solutions with easy-to-understand statements or messages.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide advanced games and puzzles that alleviate one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art. Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description.

In view of the above, the present invention, in one aspect, generally includes a plurality of polyomino pieces, each piece having one or more squares on both sides, each said piece and said squares on both sides having a mark, A game or puzzle in which the square such marks on both sides of the piece include a total of four or more marks,
The pieces can be assembled into a first set of patterns including squares, using only their surfaces, and the square marks on the surfaces of the assembled pieces to play a checker or chess game Forming a checkerboard pattern of two alternating marks that can be used for
The pieces can further be assembled into a second set of one or more patterns using the back of several pieces and the surface of the remaining pieces, each of the four patterns of the second set being four or Including squares forming a further checkerboard pattern of further marks, one of said marks forming an alternating checkerboard pattern with the remaining marks;
The piece may further be assembled into a third set of patterns using only the back side of the piece, each pattern of the third set including three types of marks on the back side, one of the marks being the other They can be arranged in a pattern to form two marks and a checkerboard pattern,
The assembly of the pieces forming the first set of patterns resides in a game or puzzle that is different from the assembly required for the pieces forming the third set of patterns.

  In a preferred form, the polyomino is selected according to what is shown by Sam Lloyd on page 179 of the above introduction for each shape and surface checker pattern. However, by selecting a specific checker pattern on the back side of the piece in accordance with the present invention (rather than simply duplicating the checkerboard pattern of the same, inverted, or alternate mark of each piece) Despite surpassing solutions, it has surprisingly been found that there is an arrangement that can demonstrate the unique solution of the puzzle. “Unique” means that there is only one piece arrangement that allows a particular pattern. For example, one unique solution can be demonstrated that includes a stripe pattern similar to that of the third set of patterns of the present invention, but where the stripes of the two marks are imperfect in the diagonal direction of the board. There may be other patterns with unique solutions, and in fact, there may be a significant number of patterns with unique solutions.

  Furthermore, the puzzle according to the present invention is considered to have an advantage that there is a very simple solution to the simple checkerboard puzzle of the first pattern. In other words, the solution of the first set of checkerboard patterns can be chosen to be found very easily. In all other sets, the solution can be selected so that the difficulty in solving the game or puzzle changes in stages. In the form called “kaleidoscope board”, where the mark is selected from four colors and one of them is common to both sides, it will be a beautifully artistic pattern rather than a checkerboard puzzle. A fourth set of patterns is possible that can be selected. It will be appreciated that the incomplete stripe pattern is derived from the third set of patterns. In terms of numbers, there are tens of thousands of patterns in the third set, and for this particular embodiment, it is anticipated that there will probably be millions of patterns in the second set, and the description of the accompanying drawings below This will be explained in more detail.

  In another aspect, the present invention is generally a game or puzzle comprising a plurality of polyomino pieces having a front side and a back side and having a square with a mark on each side, wherein the polyomino is formed from a number of adjacent cubes. Each puzzle piece is configured to have the same dimension as the sides of the square forming the polyomino so that each puzzle piece has side surfaces formed from adjacent squares. One or more solutions that are selected to present at least some indicia and the puzzle piece comprises an assembled cube having a number of squares along each edge, corresponding to the number of squares on the front and back sides And at least one of the solutions is one or more members on at least one of the faces of the assembled cube. Include sage, the one or more message resides at least made up of several, game or puzzle of the indicia in the squares.

  In a preferred form, all puzzle pieces are hexaminos including all 35 planar shapes that can be formed from six squares, such that the hexino is formed from six adjacent cubes. Each puzzle piece is configured to have the same dimensions as the square sides forming the hexino, and the additional hexino is configured so that one of its cubes extends from the planar dimensions to three dimensions, or alternatively, a cubic The original hexomino was replaced with two different torimino shapes (only two types of triomino), which has squares with different marks on each side, with six marks along each edge So that the puzzle pieces can be assembled into one or more solutions containing assembled cubes with squares At least one of the solutions is selected to provide a mark, and at least one of the faces of the assembled cube includes one or more messages, the one or more messages comprising the marks in the square Is done.

  The message can include a color pattern, and the indicia in each is composed of multiple colors as described above. However, the indicia preferably takes the form of language characters to assemble one or more language messages. In such a form, the appropriate selection of letters and their respective placement on the square allows a specific pattern of “rosettes” so that the word or words can be easily read even when the cube can be turned in different orientations. Rosette) ”can be provided. The message or messages are typically relatively short, such as proverbs or sayings that use alphabetic characters in languages such as English, or in the form of magic squares where the sign takes the form of a number. Or a longer passage of prose or poetry in ideographic languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. When presenting characters in the form of rosettes, it is preferable to provide a mask with an aperture aligned with one of the characters in each rosette to be placed above the face of the cube in order to present the message more clearly. By using a rosette with a mask, the ability of the three-dimensional aspect of the puzzle of the present invention can be translated into an easy-to-understand message regardless of the orientation of the characters that can be used to compose the message.

In another aspect, the invention is generally a method of utilizing the puzzle described herein,
Selecting an arrangement of four types of marks on a polyomino square;
Publishing a polyomino arrangement for consideration;
Providing a reward for the presentation of one of a set of solutions, the reward periodically increasing to a maximum reward amount.

  Preferably, the publishing is done via an Internet website and paid for accessing a polyomino arrangement and / or accessing a website form for uploading a presentation pattern for the third set of patterns. . A relatively small reward can be presented for uploading new (ie, never published) solutions from the first set of patterns, and for uploading patterns from the second set of patterns, A moderate reward can be presented. In such a form, the award can be set to increase, for example, US $ 1,000 per day, and the maximum award can be set, for example, to US $ 1 million.

  Since a two-dimensional version of the present invention, such as a kaleidoscope board, can be more easily subjected to numerical analysis, the type of puzzle targeted for the reward system is preferably the three-dimensional cubic version of the present invention.

  It will be appreciated that there are many special effects that are possible from the undiscovered phenomenon in the puzzle of the present invention. For example, as one of the effects found in the kaleidoscope board, there is a “double-sided” pattern, that is, a beautiful pattern on both sides of a predetermined solution. However, only one side can be solved as a checkerboard pattern for each solution. In addition, some solutions can produce patterns that can be reversed by direction or color, or by both direction and color. A solution having a pattern that can be rotated or mirrored can be determined. Furthermore, in order to determine or characterize such special effects, rules, principles or mechanisms that allow the determination of further patterns for such special effects can be discovered.

  In the case of the three-dimensional form of the present invention, the pattern can be reversed only in a small part. If the letters that form a word at one location on one side of the cube are all on separate pieces, the letters are placed on one square face of the piece and the solution at the opposite side of the face of the cube It is possible to present. Needless to say, there may be other solutions that can provide this effect. Further examples can include, but are not limited to, solutions that form crosswords and that give hints about the actual words that form the solution, and encrypted messages. Furthermore, the ease of decryption can be selected according to similar principles used to select other word-type solutions described herein.

  In order that the present invention may be more readily understood and put into practical use, it will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate several preferred embodiments of the invention.

The front and back surfaces of the puzzle according to the present invention, referred to herein as the “Kaleidoscope board”, are shown. 18 pieces (both sides) forming the puzzle of FIG. 1 are shown collectively. Fig. 3 shows an alternative pattern that can be assembled using the surface of the puzzle piece of Fig. 2; FIG. 2 collectively shows further alternative patterns that can be assembled using the surface of the puzzle piece, but the same solution can also be used to reverse the pattern geometrically and with respect to color. Show. FIG. 3 collectively shows two solutions of a checkerboard pattern on the surface of the puzzle piece of FIG. 3 shows an example of a unique solution of a checkerboard pattern that uses the back of the puzzle piece of FIG. FIG. 6 is an isometric view of a 6 × 6 × 6 cube puzzle according to the present invention showing one specific solution. FIG. 8 collectively shows one face of 37 pieces forming the puzzle of FIG. FIG. 9 schematically shows a solution of the puzzle shown in FIG. 7 using the pieces of FIG. One of the puzzles of FIG. 7 showing details of the layout of the characters in the form of a rosette in a square part, separately and with masks shown in four orientations covering three of the four characters. One face is shown schematically. The puzzle solution similar to that of FIG. 7 is schematically shown, but in a form that can be reversed. A page 179 copy of the “Compendium of Checker Board Puzzles” by Jerry Slocum and Jack Haubrich published in August 1993, demonstrating the 18 puzzle pieces shown in FIG. It is.

  A kaleidoscope board puzzle 10 shown in FIG. 1 has a front surface 11 and a back surface 12 each including an 8 × 8 square arrangement. The surface has two types of marks, 32 squares each having a dark color mark corresponding to a dark color square indicated by 16, and 32 squares each having a horizontal stripe mark corresponding to a horizontal stripe square indicated by 15. The back surface has three kinds of marks, 32 correspond to the same dark color as provided on the front surface, 16 have light color marks corresponding to light color squares indicated by 14 and 16 each have 13 The vertical stripe mark corresponding to the square of the vertical stripe shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the 18 pieces forming the puzzle of FIG. 1 are two monominos 21, 22, one domino 23, two L-shaped triominoes 24, 25, 2, 1 linear triomino 26, 27, square tetromino 28, linear tetromino 29, 4 L-shaped tetrominoes 30, 31, 32, 33, 2 T-shaped tetrominoes 34, 35, and 2 It consists of 10 tetrominoes, including one S-shaped or Z-shaped tetromino 36, 37, and one linear octomino 38. The standard is that these pieces are the maximum number of pieces that are all different in size, shape, or color, provided that the marks form a checkerboard puzzle when the pieces are assembled together to form a square. It will be understood that this is an example to satisfy.

  The alternative pattern 41 shown in FIG. 3 is a pattern in which a part of the piece is arranged so that the letter “W” appears near the center of the board when viewed from a counterclockwise angle of 45 degrees with respect to the illustrated pattern. is there.

  The further alternative pattern 42 shown in FIG. 4 can be interpreted as an elephant. The pattern can be reversed or reversed with respect to color, as represented by the top two dark elephants with respect to the bottom two light elephants, and on the left side compared to the two examples on the right side As represented by the two examples, it can also be reversed geometrically. Geometrically inverted patterns must also be exchanged for other puzzle pieces that have some of the same shape but alternate placement of the square color of each piece to “invert” the placement. It turns out that it also reverses the placement of the puzzle pieces with that in mind.

  Two solutions 43, 44 of the checkerboard pattern on the surface of the puzzle of FIG. 1 are shown in FIG. These solutions are two of the 20 billion checkerboard solutions by the author of the above introduction, as can be seen in the copy on page 179 shown in FIG. The pattern shown in FIG. 6 is a pattern with a unique solution, but other unique solutions will have a different pattern than that illustrated in the light of the definition of what constitutes the unique solution described above.

  The cube puzzle 60 shown in FIG. 7 is composed of 35 hexinos and reference numbers 61 to 95, which are also shown in FIG. The cube has a front surface 111, an end surface 112, and a top surface 113. (Some puzzle pieces in FIG. 8 are hidden behind other pieces in FIG. 7 and are not visible). FIG. 9 shows six “layers” 101 to 106 of a puzzle that provide a solution for solving the puzzle, and puzzle pieces parallel to the page are given underlined reference numbers. It can be seen that other reference numbers (not underlined) appear in more than one layer. The pieces 61, 65, 70, 74, 76, 77, 79, 87, 89, 94, 95 have at least one square that can be seen in the front, and the pieces 61, 63, 65, 68, 69, 73, 74, 76, 86, 87, 88, 91, 92, 95 have at least one square visible on the end face and pieces 61, 62, 68, 80, 86, 91, 92, 96, 97 on the top face. It can also be seen that it has at least one surface that is visible.

  The plane of the puzzle shown in FIG. 10 can include a mask 100 having a plurality of apertures generally shown at 101. Square or rectangular apertures are equally spaced and sized and aligned to align with a set of four characters that form each rosette in each square of the puzzle face. It can be seen that the message “A stitch in time saves nine” is presented on the surface of the puzzle and is easier to read when the correct orientation mask aligns it with the appropriate letters in the rosette as shown at 102 . In the other three orientations, the message is not easily understood, as shown at 103, 104, 105. In the diagram shown in 102, the word “TIME” can be read diagonally from the upper left to the lower right, but in the diagram shown in 105, it can be read from the lower left to the upper right when rotated counterclockwise. I would like to pay attention to this.

  The three-dimensional puzzle of the present invention has a solution that shows a message on only one side, but is chosen to provide a solution that has a message on all six sides. For example, the phrase “a stitch in time saves nine” can be placed in several ways on one side of a puzzle cube, but if there are more than two sides of a cube with phrases or proverbs, it is not necessarily included in another solution. Or it doesn't have to be one of sayings. There may also be solutions that show messages on two sides simultaneously, or perhaps on three sides simultaneously. A solution that presents a message on up to five of the six sides may include a message that is different from the message contained in the six-sided solution. In addition, the placement of the mark allows the puzzle solver to find five of the six messages, but the sixth side of the puzzle presents something other than the easy-to-understand message and has the sixth message It can be chosen to require a different solution of the puzzle to achieve the solution.

  In the example shown in FIG. 11, the puzzle has characters that spell the name “FRANK” on one side. The puzzle is formed from six layers 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, and the word is visible from the “bottom” of the bottom layer 111. However, in this example, the illustrated layers can be reversed to “reverse” the solution. In addition, when considering the other two possible orientations, the front-back and left-right directions, the “layer” as such can still be reversed to provide a “reversed” solution. If the word is formed from letters on the single square end face of the piece, as in the case of “FRANK” in this example, the word can also be reversed in a reverse process. It is believed that the rules described above apply to the other two orientations of the layer.

  The game or puzzle of the present invention can be used as an auxiliary teaching tool for cultivating linguistic thinking as well as cultivating spatial thinking. Indeed, the game or puzzle of the present invention can be used to develop both spatial and linguistic thinking. There are many teaching tools for nurturing linguistic thinking, but relatively few are for cultivating spatial thinking, and few are capable of cultivating both. In addition, the method of using the game or puzzle of the present invention on the Internet will allow individuals participating in puzzle resolution to participate, perhaps without the participant noticing that their spatial and linguistic thinking skills are so developed. It can be adjusted to develop such thinking ability.

  Although the invention has been described with reference to numerous specific examples, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be embodied in other forms without departing from the broad scope and scope of the invention described herein. Will be done.

Claims (16)

  A game or puzzle comprising a plurality of polyomino pieces having a front side and a back side and having squares with marks on each side, wherein the polyomino is formed from a number of adjacent cubes and formed from adjacent squares Each puzzle piece is configured to have the same dimensions as the sides of the square forming the polyomino so as to have sides, so that the back and front marks and the side squares mark at least a portion of the squares. The selected puzzle pieces can be assembled into one or more solutions including assembled cubes having a number of squares along each edge, corresponding to the number of squares on the front and back sides, At least one including one or more messages on at least one side of the face of the assembled cube; Other consists more messages at least some of said indicia in said squares, game or puzzle.   Each puzzle piece is a hexamino containing all 35 different planar shapes that can be formed from 6 squares, and each puzzle piece is formed from 6 adjacent cubes. Constructed to the same dimensional height as the square sides forming the hexino, the further hexino is configured such that one of its cubes extends from the planar dimensions in three dimensions, and the hexino has a different mark on each side or side Marks mark at least some of the squares so that the puzzle pieces can be assembled into one or more solutions containing assembled cubes with squares and 6 squares along each edge. One or more messages on at least one of the faces of the cube in which at least one of the solutions is selected. The game or puzzle of claim 1, wherein one or more messages are comprised of indicia within a square.   All but two of the puzzle pieces are hexinos including all 35 types of planar shapes that can be formed from six squares, and each puzzle piece is formed from six adjacent cubes. Is configured to have the same height as the square sides forming the hexino, and the remaining puzzle pieces contain two triominos of different shapes (there are only two types of triominos), and hexinos can be Have squares with different marks, and the marks are square so that the puzzle pieces can be assembled into one or more solutions, including assembled cubes, with six squares along each edge. One or more on at least one of the faces of the cube that is selected to provide at least some indicia and at least one of the solutions is assembled It includes the above message, one or more messages consisting of a sign in a square, a game or puzzle according to claim 1.   4. A game or puzzle according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the message includes one or more patterns of colors, and the indicia in each is composed of multiple colors.   4. A game or puzzle according to claim 2 or 3 wherein the indicia takes the form of language characters to assemble one or more language messages.   6. A game or puzzle according to claim 5, wherein the one or more patterns take the form of a specific pattern "rosette" by appropriate selection of characters and their respective placement on a square.   The game or puzzle according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the one or more messages are selected to take the form of proverbs or sayings using letters of the alphabetic language.   4. A game or puzzle according to claim 2 or 3 wherein one or more messages are selected to take the form of a magic square and the indicium takes the form of a number.   4. A game or puzzle according to claim 2 or 3, wherein one or more messages are selected to take the form of ideographic language prose or poetry.   The game or puzzle according to any one of claims 2 to 9, wherein the characters are presented in the form of rosettes.   11. The game or puzzle of claim 10 including a mask having an aperture that aligns with one of the characters in each rosette. Comprising a plurality of polyomino pieces, each piece having one or more squares on both sides, each said piece and said squares on both sides having a mark, said squares on both sides of said piece A game or puzzle in which the mark contains 4 or more marks in all,
The pieces can be assembled into a first set of patterns including squares, using only their surfaces, and the square marks on the surfaces of the assembled pieces to play a checker or chess game Forming a checkerboard pattern of two alternating marks that can be used for
The pieces can further be assembled into a second set of one or more patterns using the back of several pieces and the surface of the remaining pieces, each of the four patterns of the second set being four or Including squares forming a further checkerboard pattern of further marks, one of said marks forming an alternating checkerboard pattern with the remaining marks;
The piece may further be assembled into a third set of patterns using only the back side of the piece, each pattern of the third set including three types of marks on the back side, one of the marks being the other They can be arranged in a pattern to form two marks and a checkerboard pattern,
A method of using a game or puzzle in which the assembly of the pieces forming the first set of patterns is different from the assembly required for the pieces forming the second set of patterns,
Selecting an arrangement of four types of marks on a polyomino square;
Publishing a polyomino arrangement for consideration;
Providing a reward for presentation of one of the solutions of any set, the reward periodically increasing to a maximum reward amount.   13. The method of claim 12, comprising presenting a relatively small reward for uploading a new solution from any set of patterns.   The method of claim 13, further comprising providing a medium reward for uploading solutions from the second set of patterns. A method of using the game or puzzle according to any one of claims 1 to 11,
Selecting an arrangement of four types of marks on a polyomino square;
Publishing a polyomino arrangement for consideration;
Providing a reward for presenting a solution including a message, the reward periodically increasing to a maximum reward amount.   16. The publication according to any one of claims 12 to 15, wherein the publication is performed via an internet website and consideration is paid for accessing a website form for uploading a presentation solution for a polyomino arrangement and / or pattern. The method described in 1.

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